LiveJournal Project - April 2004

Ah yes, Uncle Blackbird's fable. The only thing missing is an appearance from Shitbear - except that Shitbear was not imagined for many more years.

Date: 2004-04-04 20:33
Subject: today's fable is brought to you by jack's smirking revenge.
part 1: the grass is always greener

hey kids, gather 'round, cuz uncle blackbird is going to tell you a story. there once was a girl with bright green hair who liked to talk over a microphone. her hair was so green, and she liked to talk so much, that she eventually came to be known by the name of mc greengrass. in fact, mc greengrass liked to talk so much, that she often made up stories about herself just so that others would think that she was extra-super-cool. for instance, she somehow managed to convince herself that the was a sufficiently skilled and talented member of the forest community that she could be a part of mr. oaktree's worldwide organization. in fact, she even fancied herself one of mr. oaktree's good friends. and so it came to pass that somehow in her travels around the wide, wide virtual meadow, mc greengrass came across mr. fluffy bunny, a genuinely nice, if somewhat naive, member of the forest community. and so the two began talking, and before you could say "lawnmower", mc greengrass was making plans to visit mr. bunny's corner of the woods. unfortunately for her, she had no acorns with which to pay her way out there - but nay, she would not be deterred. enter mr. porcupine. mr. porcupine hadn't really had the best of luck interacting with other members of the forest; it seemed that they always just wanted to roll him over and stick him in the belly, and so he was, naturally, a bit cautious when he first encountered mc greengrass. however, as it turns out, mc greengrass (being grassy and all) was able to rub mr. porcupine the right way, telling more of her famous tales so that he'd lower those spines a bit and let her in. and then guess what happened, kids? mr. porcupine genuinely thought that ol' greeny was interested in getting to know him better, and after hearing tale upon tale of sorrow, he agreed to not only share his stash of acorns, but open up his lair to her. little did he know that he was being played like a game of hopscotch. and all the while that this is going on, mc greengrass is starting to cozy up to mr. fluffy bunny, who's also eager to, well, shall we say, get a piece of grass.

fast forward a bit, and before you know it, mc greengrass is taking up residence in mr. porcupine's lair, and using that as a springboard to get to mr. fluffy bunny. oh, wait, looks like uncle blackbird forgot to mention something - ms. fluffy bunny! now, mr. and ms. fluffy bunny weren't married or anything, but they did live together, and it seems that just as things were starting to go sour on their little carrot patch, mc greengrass appeared to really catch mr. bunny's eye. it was about this time that ol' uncle blackbird and aunt snowflake saw what was going on with their friend, mr. bunny, and mc greengrass, and they immediately smelled a weed. they tried to warn mr. bunny - pointing out all kinds of inconsistencies in greengrass's stories, and trying to get mr. bunny to recall those years when uncle blackbird was living with madame ferret and the various problems they had gone through. unfortunately, mr. bunny's heart was bigger than his head, and although he seemed to be listening to his yin and yang-colored friends, in reality he was just setting himself up for a hare-raising experience.

that's all for today, kids. stay tuned for part 2: swiss weeds!

Time: 20:43
Subject: note...
in an earlier post, a little over a month ago, i wrote the following:

person B: fucking with my friends is a good way to incur the wrath of ravyn, and i can assure you that this is something you do not want.

guess what? person B has successfully crossed the threshhold of ravyn's bringin-the-pain-o-meter. stay tuned to this space for a tirade the likes of which you've never seen before. HO HO HO!

Time: 22:33
Subject: by popular demand, uncle blackbird returns!
part 2: swiss weeds!

and so it happened to be that a big party for all the members of the forest was scheduled for the coming weekend; it was called JOYFUL, and mr. fluffy bunny was scheduled to be on the lineup. uncle blackbird and auntie snowflake, although getting too old for these sorts of things, decided that it would be good to make an appearance and check out mc greengrass for themselves. and when that fateful day rolled around, as it turned out, the entire forest had come out for this grand event. mr. fluffy bunny, mr. porcupine, ms. red squirrel (who had recently changed her name from ms. fluffy bunny due to the fact that it looked like she was moving out of the rabbit hole) and mc greengrass were all there. it was, shall we say, an interesting experience. see, on one hand, mc greengrass was supposed to be mr. porcupine's girlfriend, but on the other hand, she spent all her time trying to get ahold of mr. fluffy bunny's lucky rabbit's foot. this did not go unnoticed by uncle blackbird, and ms. red squirrel was indeed seeing red that night. mr. porcupine wasn't quite sure what was going on; uncle blackbird thinks that he was probably trying to just ignore the reality of the situation and hope that it would all get better. unfortunately for him, the thorny situation just got stickier. in the weeks following JOYFUL, mc greengrass, having been introduced to the fertile soil of this new part of the forest, began to spread like, well, a weed. she started popping up in all the places that the forest regulars liked to hang out, too, trying to latch on to mr. walrus, mr. goat-cheese, and for a brief moment, it looked like not even uncle blackbird would be safe! and you can bet that auntie snowflake was just waiting with her gas-powered weed-whacker for that to happen, too. can you say weed whacker, boys and girls? i knew you could...

most of the forest regulars weren't fooled. they'd been around long enough to recognize that pungent odor of rotting wilderness regardless of how well it's covered up, but some, i'm afraid, didn't catch that bottle of eau de nice girl in the back pocket of mc greengrass. (funny thing about eau de nice girl - it can magically make a lot of people like you, but it's kinda like smoking crack - the more you use, the more you have to use to cover up the comedown from your previous usage, and eventually, the your money or your bottle run out and everyone sees what a nasty skank you really are.) however, at least for the moment, mr. goat-cheese, in particular, seemed to be quite taken in by that sickly sweet aroma, and began plotting ways to take her for a roll in the hay. now, what's really messed up about this situation is that mr. goat-cheese and mr. fluffy bunny had been good friends for quite some time, and bunny had even told the cheesehead that he was really interested in taking a walk on the grassy knoll - a sort of signal to him to, well, step off.

things are not going so well for mr. fluffy bunny. he's being bombarded with information, thoughts, and ideas from all sides, and it's starting to really stress him out. it's rumored that he's started yelling out "owww!!! my arm!" when he thinks nobody's around. he's got ms. red squirrel pulling him in one direction, mc greengrass pulling in another, and uncle blackbird sitting on a branch overhead saying "caw! caw! tell them all to f'caw-off!" he's starting to see some wabbit twaps up on the horizon, but unfortunately he's genuinely interested in mc greengrass and still thinking a little too much about getting some tail. it's open season on mr. fluffy bunny! what will he do? what about mr. goat-cheese?

TUNE IN next time for part 3: santa claus is coming to toontown! HO HO HO!

Date: 2004-04-05 07:32
Subject: the saga continues...
part3: santa claus is coming to toon town! HO HO HO!

and so we rejoin our heroes as they prepare for another party put together by the denizens of the forest for the denizens of the forest; this one is called TUNE UP, and unlike JOYFUL, this time both uncle blackbird and mr. fluffy bunny are scheduled to perform. in the days leading up to the event, mr. bunny decides that he's going to try something a little different with his performance this time, and plans to do a joint set with mc greengrass as, well, an mc. uncle blackbird and some others try to convince him that this isn't really such a good idea, but he calls it an experiment and proceeds to go ahead with it anyway. so the event rolls around, and at first, everything seems to be going quite well. uncle blackbird manages to win a few converts to the church of psychedelic trance before going off to work the door for awhile with mr. bunny, ms. red squirrel, and auntie snowflake. at this point, what our dastardly mc greengrass is up to remains a mystery - but it's likely that she's spending her time flitting between mr. porcupine, mr. goat-cheese, and anyone else who might look like a good mark for her wiles. as the night goes on, our heroes part ways and wander around the event, and at one point we catch sight of ms. red squirrel keeping a watchful eye on mr. bunny and mc greengrass. later, mr. bunny and ms. squirrel find the cold night air a bit too much to handle, so they head off to mr. bunny's car to run the heater and pollute the environment for awhile. it's at this point that uncle blackbird and auntie snowflake make a startling discovery. back on the second stage, we see mr. goat-cheese and mc greengrass BOOTY DANCING! ah, but that's not all, kids, it seems that mr. goat-cheese has a pretty advanced case of a potentially-dangerous illness - known in these parts as roman fingers! now, one would think that if mc greengrass really did like mr. bunny, as she'd been indicating, she'd have been upset by mr. goat-cheese and his fingers, right? nay, children, it was not to be. if anything, mc greengrass was only encouraging the further development of his illness. apparently, it didn't make any difference to mr. cheese that our hero, mr. bunny, had an interest in mc greengrass. apparently, it didn't make any difference to mc greengrass that someone other than mr. bunny was doin' the bump and grind with her. and apparently neither one of them expected the watchful eye of the blackbird who now relates this tale of deceit. as the event came to a close, it was clear that mr. bunny was upset. he was starting to realize that mc greengrass was just using him as a stepping stone to get to, well, greener pastures, just as she had done previously with mr. porcupine, and no doubt would do again to the unwitting mr. goat-cheese when a new opportunity came along.

by this time, mr. porcupine, who'd been doing his best to be a nice guy throughout this whole mess by giving mc greengrass a place to live, was also beginning to realize that he was being spiked, and he and mr. fluffy bunny began to compare notes. and what did they find? to neither one's surprise, mc greengrass had used the same stories of woe and despair to gain sympathy and feigned attraction to arouse interest on both of them, just as she was now doing with mr. goat-cheese. they both saw how mc greengrass was covering herself in even more eau de nice girl - changing her colors yet again, this time to reflect the interests of mr. goat-cheese. they both realized that they had been used, played, and treated like pawns in the selfish mc greengrass's pathetic little game. mr. bunny and mr. porcupine became angry, yet at the same time relieved, knowing that very soon they would cast mc greengrass into the lawn bag of oblivion. perhaps, soon, mr. goat-cheese will also realize his folly. as for uncle blackbird, well, he was also relieved that mr. bunny had stopped himself from making what could've been a catastrophic mistake - but he was also quite angry with mc greengrass for upsetting his friend and bringing her pollution into the forest that he'd called home for many years. it wasn't enough that mr. bunny was saved; now it was time to purify the forest, to get rid of that weed....

stay tuned for the conclusion.... uncle blackbird speaks out - or - you have angered my bunghole and now you must pay!

Time: 20:21
i'm sure that there are some (probably a lot) of you that have no idea what the previous few entries were about, so for this final chapter, i'm going to ditch the uncle blackbird and mc greengrass monikers and just say exactly what i think and be done with it. so this is for you, angie-dj-skye, you self-serving duplicitious fucktard:

in general, i have much better things to do with my time than to waste any of it with a sorry little shit like you, and normally i wouldn't give two shits about your pathetic ass and the games that you play EXCEPT for the fact that you made the colossal error of playing with the emotions of a good friend of mine, and for that, you deserve a never-ending stream of public humiliation, embarassment, and ridicule. everything i've come to learn about you speaks volumes to the fact that you're an insecure little snot, busy rebelling against your parents and hoping to enlist anyone you can possibly find in some kind of great adventure of pouting revenge and self-aggrandizement, and you've spouted the same collection of untruths for so long that you've convinced yourself that they're true. guess what? i checked. perfecto quad records doesn't exist. and even if it did, you wouldn't have the talent to be a record-bag girl, let alone actually get signed. do you really think people believe your shit - that because you can produce the same outdated photo of paul oakenfold anytime someone calls your status into question that it's a legitimate proof of anything? you're like a script kiddie - no skills of your own, so you just keep trying to find some small bit of fame and glory in the work of others - fuck, you can't even write your own livejournal entries without ripping them off from someone. how 'bout that piece on "the art of creative suicide" - we all know you can't spell for shit, so it's obvious that you didn't write that - and even more obvious thanks to a few keystrokes in google. here's a cluepon: citing the original author is a GOOD THING. plagiarism is a BAD THING. i'm even wondering if you actually do your own mixes. repeat that a few times next time you're thinking about ripping off someone else's work. it's pretty pathetic the lengths that you've gone to continue this illusion of talent, creativity, and skill, but i suppose that's what happens when your own supply is nonexistent. so let's recap the story:

you appeared out of nowhere, started talking to and flirting with skott, and you found out that he's a dj who's having some relationship problems. unhappy with your current situation, you looked for a way to get out to phoenix. come on, phoenix? if your homelife is so fucking bad with your parents, why not just go stay with some friends? why not get your buddy paul oakenfold to hook you up - oh, wait, that's because you don't actually KNOW HIM. you don't have any money of your own because you've spent it all on ecstasy, so you manage to convince dave that you love him and he pays for your way out here, all the while you're talking about things you want to do with skott. and then you get here, and completely take advantage of dave for a place to live, and then start milking skott for a way to ingratiate yourself into our little music community. and once it looks like skott's not going to buy your bullshit, you play him long enough to get to mark - once again, telling everyone what they want to hear so that it'll all work out in your favor. funny that the stories you tell to everyone are all the same, with enough variation so that it'll seem like you have things in common with them. the queen of trance magically becomes a happycore kid overnight. skott was a trance dj. mark is a happycore dj/promoter. coincidence? i think not. and now, in what it likely yet another drug-addled fit of stupidity, you and mark have proclaimed your love for each other. come on, what'd you do - eat some pills, get naked, and share a few bits of serotonin-induced revelations, all of which will either wear off as soon as you sober up or just continue to be artificially-perpetuated with little round bits of illusion?! i've done plenty of drugs in my lifetime, but one thing i can happily say is that i've never eaten so many pills that i've actually suffered from WITHDRAWAL symptoms from a drug that isn't physically addictive. lay off the pills, get an education, and learn to realize that the world does not revolve around your sorry little ass. sleeping your way to some measure of success (not like you'll ever actually find any) is only going to leave you cold and empty and with a trail of angry, bitter people seeking revenge. both dave and skott genuinely liked and cared about you, and you just played them both to get ahead. how long before mark gets tossed aside?

will the real dj skye please stand up? as far as i'm concerned, this whole situation has teenage rebellious angst written all over it. your parents were unhappy with your drug use and some choices that you've made, so you ran off to another part of the country, just to spite them. yeah, you'll show them! who cares if you have to manipulate and play people? who cares if you hurt anyone as long as you're not going home to your mother? who cares if anyone's upset as long as you have some happy pills? after all, you're the great and talented and cute dj skye, and people should feel sorry for you and buy you drugs and make you smile because everybody loves a trance kitty, right? boo-fucking-hoo-hoo, you bloody assclown. you can fool some of the people all of the time, and you might even fool all of the people some of the time, but you'll never fool me. my friends are not your stepping stones, nor tools to use for your petty spite.

the arizona electronic music scene has enough problems without a cancerous parasite like you making things worse. go home.

Time: 23:22
Subject: we now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming...
but not without one last comment... =) apparently, i've been labeled a "jaded old raver" as if somehow this is something that i'm supposed to take offense to. that's the funniest thing i've heard in a long time. a fitting end to this tale.

so yeah, in other news, now that i'm finally over the sinus infection / bronchitis attack from hell, it's time to get back in the gym and move some pieces of metal around. it's also time to get back into the kung fu, something that i've been putting off for way too long - the problem, unfortunately, is finding a good school /instructor in the phoenix area that a: isn't going to require me to drive halfway to flagstaff to get there, and b: actually teaches something legitimate and isn't a mcdojo or a burger kwoon. of course, the other problem is finding a place that teaches the stuff that i'm most interested in - that, i think, might prove to be the biggest challenge. i think there's a dojo in tucson that teaches some of the material i'm hoping to learn, but that doesn't help too much. after searching the web, i did manage to find one instructor that's not too far away that claims to teach all the things that i'm hoping to learn, but i can't help but get a funny feeling from checking out the dude's website.

nihongo no shukudai ga arisugimasu.

Date: 2004-04-08 18:44
Subject: where the hell did that come from??!
what a whack-ass dream i just woke up from. (yes, i know it's almost 7pm, but i haven't been on a normal schedule for god knows how long.) sometimes i think my brain knows just how to take any kind of confusing or potentially confusing and unresolved issues in my life, blend them all together and throw a good mindfuck my way. and hell, i didn't even have any chocolate before i went to bed. must've been the psytrance. or maybe i can blame it on the new bed. i dunno. maybe i'll put the contents in a private entry so i can refer back to them later in case any of the events in the dream actually come to pass. =/

Date: 2004-04-11 08:09
Subject: are you single? do you pay taxes?
read this. honestly, i have to admit that i never really thought about it too much, but it's just another example of how the government finds ways to screw people. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A768-2004Apr9.html

Time: 09:13
Subject: get yer ass back in the gym and lift some weights, dammit!
inspired by , i've decided to make use of my LJ as a training log. and since i know there are some (all?) of you that probably don't give two shits about any of this stuff, i'm going to be filtering out all posts past this one. so, if you want to keep up on my encounters with pieces of metal that don't move unless i make them move, leave a comment. otherwise, this is all you get.

yeah, so, it's been about a month since i've been in the gym. i got a sinus infection / bronchitis in mid-march, then was on vacation for a week, and to top it all off, last week i got some nasty blisters on my feet from walking three miles in sandals with no socks that made it difficult to stand up, let alone walk. but now the antibiotics have done their job and my foot is healed to the point where i can probably do just about anything except running (which i despise anyway), so it's time to get back at it. i don't know if i have any specific goals in mind - i'm not training for a triathlon, nor to compete in anything, and as far as my 1-rep max lifts, i haven't the slightest idea what they are and don't really care, although if i had to guess i'd say i can bench about 250 and squat about 400 (neither one of these is all that great). i think i see working out and lifting as more of a competition with myself than anything else - a "can i do more than i did last week" sort of thing. although i'm sure that if i start back in with the martial arts, time spent in the gym won't be wasted.

here's what my training schedule is going to look like:
day 1: chest
day 2: back
day 3: legs
day 4: shoulders
day 5: arms
day 6/7: off / cardio / whatever
abs will get done a little bit every day or every other day.

as far as supplements and things go, i'm not doing anything too esoteric - a good multivitamin 2x per day, and post-workout drinks consisting of creatine, protein powder, and glutamine. i've tried some of the stranger (legal) things out there for performance enhancement (prohormones, myostatin inhibitors, growth hormone stimulators) and the only thing that happened was that my wallet got a little weaker. fuck that stuff.

the problem with taking time off from the gym (more than a couple weeks) is that when you go back, you can't lift for shit, and inevitably, when you write up your workout, you overestimate what you'll be able to do. at least that's how it always works for me, and today was no different.

so, without further ado, here was today's intended workout:

and here's what was actually accomplished. sets that i was unable to complete, either in terms of number of reps or amount of weight, are listed in red. sets that i was able to complete or exceed are listed in green.

all in all, this was an extremely disappointing day. it blows my mind sometimes how long it can take to reach a certain point and then how quickly you can lose it. eh, fuck, though, gotta start somewhere, and better to get back into it now than wait another month and get that much flabbier. i'll be curious to see if i'm sore at all tomorrow - i got home from the gym about 5 hours ago, and so far i don't feel anything tightening up yet. we shall see how things develop...

Date: 2004-04-12 11:22
Subject: day 2... back day..
ok, so first off, everyone who left a comment on the previous post is in the group that can see this; even if you didn't say specifically that you wanted to be a part of it, you're in it nonetheless - just drop a note if you want off. to keep from cluttering up your friends' pages, i'll put my tables behind an lj-cut and try to condense them a bit.

there is, indeed, a bit of soreness from yesterday's chest workout; i was expecting it to happen, although i was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as i would've thought. usually, however, it's the SECOND day after a given workout that the soreness is the worst; i'm not quite sure why that's the case - perhaps i need to stretch more or something. anyway, without further ado...

today went considerably better as far as expectations and being able to actually complete all the reps in all the sets as they were assigned; i tried a new exercise that i'd never done before and didn't realize how hard it was, comparatively speaking, so the numbers for that one are pretty low.

much better, indeed - and for all the exercises that i was able to complete all sets/all reps, next week the weight goes up.

tomorrow is everyone's favorite: leg day!

Date: 2004-04-14 05:59
Subject: everybody loves leg day!
well, ok, not everyone. i certainly don't, but i can pretend. recap from the last two days - i'm sore as fuck - it's all mostly from chest day; my back isn't too tight as of yet, and should be ok. satin_and_lace was right - the first week after getting back into working out is indeed the worst.

today's workout went pretty well, although i violated one of the cardinal rules of leg day - which is to make sure to eat a decent meal a few hours before working out. since we've been lax about heading to the grocery store, the refrigerator is currently rather bare, so my pre-workout meal consisted of exactly one protein bar. as i was getting through the third/fourth sets on the squat machine, i felt that distinctive sensation of dizzyness/nausea that comes with inadequate nutrition. didn't get lightheaded or throw up, though, but still -- bad, bad ravyn - you'd think that by now i'd know better. =/

i'm thinking that next week i'll rearrange the order of my workouts a little bit - swap chest and back day, so any kind of lower-back soreness that i might have won't carry over into my squatting. what i've also noticed is that with this set/rep pattern, the last set always seriously kills me, even though it's the lightest weight. i don't usually have too much trouble getting through the 10, 8, and 6, but then suddenly 15 seems like such a high number. granted, it's the last set and i'm expecting to be a bit worn, but still - from past workouts, i don't think my body is used to doing more than 12 reps for anything. 'tis good to keep it confused. anyway, that's all for today, kids. shoulders up next.

Date: 2004-04-15 12:07
Subject: day 4: shoulders
recap... chest is no longer sore, back is still a bit tight, and it's a bit of a challenge to sit down after yesterday's leg workout. nothing i'm not used to. other than that, not much to say. made sure to do a good bit of leg stretching after the workout was over, and once again, the final set of 15 proves to be my nemesis.

Date: 2004-04-16 15:19
Subject: day 5 - end of 1st cycle
so, the first week back at the gym is finally over. today was arms day, and probably is, next to leg day, my least favorite day in the gym - mainly because i feel that my arms are disproportionately weak compared to the rest of me - particularly my biceps. i dunno, maybe this is just my own perception, and it's probably fueled by seeing all kinds of guys who probably couldn't, say, outsquat me, do considerably more on pretty much any kind of curls you could imagine, but if i had to pick my worst bodypart from a strength perspective, that'd definitely be it. of course, i suppose i could take comfort in the fact that unlike a lot of these guys, i actually train legs. bah.

and one more random observation before i get into the numbers - i don't understand skinny little dudes who pick up weights which are obviously too heavy for them and then proceed to struggle through woefully incomplete reps. i'll be the last person to claim that i know everything there is to know about lifting, but one thing that i do know is that if you're never training with a complete range of motion, you're just wasting your time.

a couple of notes... the "1-arm reverse grip cable curl" is a complete waste of time - couldn't really do enough weight for it to be worthwhile, and couldn't seem to maintain any semblance of form. i wanted to try something different for my last bicep exercise, and i wanted to do something with a reverse grip, but i should've just stuck to reverse curls with the bar or drag curls - so that's what i'll do next week. also, let it be known that i really hate preacher curls, because, well, as you can see, i really suck at them. s'pose i won't get any better unless i keep doing it, though, but i have to admit that there is a certain embarassment factor involved when i'm struggling with my last set of 40lbs (that's total weight, not per arm) on this exercise and there's a skinny girl (not even a buff girl) standing next to me doing regular curls with a 40lb barbell. booooo on me. =/

Date: 2004-04-20 02:14
Subject: week 2, day 1 (day 6)
as mentioned in last week's entry, i decided to switch around chest and back day to give more recovery time to my lower back before squats on leg day. i also decided to add straight-leg deadlifts into my back routine - since i think that's probably the most taxing of the exercises on this day, i scheduled it first. funny thing, too - while putting the weights on, somehow i failed to realize that the bar + a 45 and a 35 is not 185, but 205, until i had the weights on the bar and ready to go. so instead of warming up with 185, my warmup set was 205 (because i was too lazy to unrack the weights). ah well, it went up easily, so i'm not complaining. only thing that really sucked this workout is that i've got some soreness in my right elbow after doing the underhand-grip lat pulldown. i imagine it'll be gone soon, though, as it doesn't feel to be anything major.

Date: 2004-04-21 13:38
Subject: fucking designers!
what the hell is wrong with graphic designers these days? i got a quote of $900 from a dude to redesign a website for me; i gave him a list of everything i needed done, and that was the number he quoted me. today i received an email saying that everything was finished and that i should go take a look. sure, that's cool, he finished the whole site (aside from the homepage) without getting any of the pages approved by me - i figured that there'd probably be a few changes needed, but what the hell... so i load up the site and start looking around - and all i can say is what the fuck is this shit?! i don't know if he somehow lost the original email or what the fucking deal is, but 80% of the things that i said i wanted aren't there, and he's done several extra pages that he wasn't supposed to. not to mention that yet again, one of the pages doesn't display properly on the PC (the dude is a mac user). can we say "lack of fucking professionalism?!?!" i sent him an email back with a list of all the discrepancies between what he did and what he was supposed to do, so we'll see what kind of reply i receive, but right now i'm really pissed off. i went with this dude because his work looked good and his price was less than half of what another guy quoted me, but now i'm starting to think that i'm really getting (or not getting, as the case may be) what i pay for. godfuckingdammit! this project has been sitting in the queue for almsot 2 years now, and now that it's starting to move forward, the last thing i need is some lame-ass nimrod holding up the process because he can't read and comprehend a bloody email. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

this is why i need to learn some fucking design skills. i'm tired of having to depend on other people to get shit done and get it done right.
Mood: pissed off

Time: 19:58
Subject: week 2, day 2 (day 7)
no soreness in the elbow, so that's good. lower back is a bit tight from adding the straight-leg deadlifts, but nothing else to report. looks like my body is getting used to being back - i was able to exceed reps and/or weight on several lifts this week. tomorrow's leg day.

Date: 2004-04-23 14:24
Subject: week 2, day 3 (day 8)
this week's leg day sucked balls. i don't know what my problem was, but after my first two exercises (squats n' lying leg curls) i was just completely gassed to the point where i couldn't finish the workout. i'd gotten a good night's sleep, i'd had some food in me, so i don't know what the problem was. no energy whatsoever. so i ended up having to split the workout in two - i went back later in the day to finish the rest of it, since i wasn't about to let my legs off easy with only two exercises. update on the elbow issue - i'm guessing there's some kind of sprain or strain or something going on in there: just the act of racking and unracking the weights made it hurt, although the pain tends to only last a couple of hours. today is shoulder day, but i may need to take an extra rest day (or just do, god forbid, some cardio) to make sure i don't jack my elbow.

Date: 2004-04-24 02:45
Subject: pat tillman, my ass.
yeah, so he died fighting for his country in a pointless war which is doing little to nothing to make america safer. and that sucks. but you know what sucks more? all this bullshit media hype. what about the over 700 other americans who got sent off to an early grave? where's the media coverage? john mccain and jd hayworth are quick to sing tillman's praises, but i bet they couldn't name even one of the other dead if they hadn't seen it on the news. i think the whole thing is just disgusting. yeah, tillman was probably a really good guy, but where's the recognition for everyone else? don't they matter? we've got piestewa peak already - how much do you want to wager that there're at least a dozen lawmakers down at the capitol building looking for some way to turn this situation into political gain by proposing that we rename something in tillman's honor?

if any good comes out of this, i hope it's that people start to take notice of the situation we're in over there and start screaming at that asshat in the white house to admit that he fucked up and bring the troops home.

Time: 02:58
Subject: week 2, day 4 (day 9)
yeah, so much for taking a day off to let my elbows heal - i know i'm going to have to do this here in the near (very near) future, because something's not right in there, but i'm trying to at least make it through the second week's worth of workouts before i do. can't really explain the pain - it comes on during the middle of a workout and then lasts for a couple hours and disappears - but there's some soreness in the joint and also in the forearm, like my forearm muscles are just really tired / overworked. i dunno- last up is arms day and then maybe i'll take a week off and force myself to do nothing but cardio.

Date: 2004-04-25 16:55
Subject: day 10 - end of 2nd cycle
ok, so i've made it through two week-long cycles of lifting, and now i'm going to take a week off. this isn't really what i want to do, but i know that there's something not right in my forearms/elbows, so rather than just keep beating on it, i'm going to give it a week's rest, do some cardio, and then go back to lifting next monday. for the cardio week, i think i'm going to alternate between doing an hour-long session of moderate effort work and then do half-hour high-intensity interval stuff. i really hate cardio, but it's better than sitting on my ass.

as i came to the end of the workout, my triceps were just completely shot, as seen from the poor performance on the last two exercises. i imagine that some of this is due to my elbow weirdness, but some of it is probably also due to the fact that on shoulder day i do overhead press, which is also a tricep exercise. i'm going to need to figure out a way to reorder things so that doesn't happen in the future.

Date: 2004-04-26 21:38
Subject: 1st amendment? what's that?
PROSSER, Wash. - One drawing showed President Bush's head on a stick. Another depicted Bush as a devil launching a missile. The drawings by a 15-year-old boy were enough to prompt some questions from the Secret Service. Agents questioned the teen after being called by police. The boy's art teacher told school officials about the drawings, and they called police. The boy was not arrested but the school district has taken disciplinary action. from http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0426bush-devil26-ON.html

ok, now, i know it's a crime to threaten the president, but can we say "overreacting"?

Date: 2004-04-29 03:57
Subject: week 2.5, day XXX
yeah, so it sucks not lifting... yesterday i put on my weight vest and did an hour's worth of cardio on the elliptical trainer. calories burned - just over 1000. not much else to report.

Date: 2004-04-30 06:20
Subject: week 2.5, day XXX
more cardio. woo. no weight vest this time. started with 20 minutes of moderate-level work on the arctrainer (kinda like a cross between a stair climber and an elliptical trainer) and then went over to the treadmill for a half hour of interval sprints. i'd walk for a couple minutes at 3mph, then run for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes at 6 to 10mph, rinse and repeat. made an interesting discovery - when i'm running, my legs actually give out before my lungs do - not in the sense that they get tired - but in the sense that a 250 pound bounding mass of flesh creates a lot of force on the down cycle. my knees and my shins are not terribly pleased with today's endeavor - i miss the underwater treadmill at my old gym. anyway, total calories burned: 756. oh yeah, my other observation: doing cardio at the gym is more interesting than doing it at home - it's still boring as fuck, but at least there's stuff to look at other than the ticking of the elapsed-time readout.